Why Eco-Friendly Beauty Packaging is on the Rise in 2017

Beauty’s latest trend has nothing to do with sheet masks, contouring, or unicorns. In fact, it has nothing to do with beauty. The latest craze to sweep the industry is all about saving the earth: beauty companies are finally hopping aboard the green train and trying to make their product packaging more sustainable.

For just about as long as there’s been a commercial market for beauty products, those products have been stored and sold in elaborate plastic packaging. Think about it: when you come home with a haul from Sephora, you typically have to peel off layers of cellophane and plastic just to get to the box, which is made up of two-to-three parts. Then, after you’ve used every last drop, you throw the mascara tube or night cream jar right into the trash. Little of the plastic used to house makeup and skincare products is recyclable, and most of it ends up in landfills. There, it will sit for years and take nearly 1,000 years to decompose. (And noo, I’m not exaggerating.)

It’s a grim picture. But the fact is plastic packaging makes up an enormous percentage of the trash that ends up in landfills, or elsewhere, and the the beauty industry has historically been a significant contributor. Some estimates say personal care and beauty products account for a third of all landfill waste.

Beauty companies have tried to mitigate their impact on the environment for years. In 2010, a handful of companies helped make eco-friendly packaging a trend. Yet as many do, the trend passed, and overall the beauty industry has still struggled to become truly eco-friendly. However, it’s not simply that beauty companies don’t care enough to help the pollution crisis: it’s largely due to the fact that beauty products have unique packaging needs that make sourcing earth-friendly materials a serious challenge.

What makes packaging sustainable?

Before you can understand these challenges, it’s important to comprehend what it really means for packaging to be “sustainable” in the first place. There’s actually no strict definition or criteria, and there are myriad earth-friendly factors that can make a product somewhat more sustainable than average.

What a product’s packaging is made of is the most obvious factor. Whether a can of hairspray or tube of lipstick is made from renewable, recycled, or biodegradable materials (or if it is itself recyclable) can easily affect how “green” the packaging is.

The simple shape of a product can also make it more environmentally friendly, too. If packaging is designed so that when packed in a box, there is no leftover space, it is better for the environment because it’s more efficient. That’s why, for example, Kevin Murphy uses square packaging.

“Something as simple as using a square shape has a huge environmental benefit,” founder Kevin Murphy explained, “since tightly-packed, boxy bottles use up to 40 percent less resin than standard round packaging and take up less shipping space and packing materials when it leaves our LEED certified distribution facility.” More efficiently packed goods ultimately means less gas will be needed to transfer a shipment. For this same reason, lighter packaging is often more sustainable as well.

Other green factors include how much energy it takes to manufacture the packaging, whether any toxic materials are included, and what impact the manufacturing has on the planet.

Why do beauty brands have trouble going green?

Because sustainability is so dynamic, there are lots of small things companies can do to make their packaging more earth-friendly. Nevertheless, the beauty industry finds itself in particularly tough spot. Though it’s easy to take for granted, many beauty products are delicate, and packaging them properly — even without taking the pollution into account — is no easy feat. Combined with the fact that selling any product en masse comes with certain packaging rules, it makes sense why the beauty industry has struggled to become sustainable.

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One of these challenges has to do with retail, or selling a product at stores like Sephora and CVS. Retailers often put restrictions on package sizing to help maximize shelf space in a store (which makes sense: if they can fit more products on the shelves, they can easily sell more). If a brand wants to sell their product at one of these locations, they have to follow the store’s guidelines when designing their packaging.

Another consideration involves the beauty products themselves. Though we don’t often think of them this way, beauty products are a bit like food. That is, they can go bad (yes, you need to throw away that year-old mascara). That deterioration process goes much faster if a product is not stored correctly. The color, odor, and shelf life of a product are all affected by packaging, and many products need air-tight packaging to stay in tact. Many skincare ingredients are finicky (a notorious example is vitamin C). When not properly packaged, the nutritive ingredients that promise to keep you ageless can be destabilized and rendered useless.

In other words, brands trying to make sustainable beauty packaging can’t simply dump their products into recyclable bottles. They have to consider how their products will be affected.

Of course, as with any business consideration, cost plays a huge factor as well.

“Cheap plastics are exactly that: inexpensive, mass produced and wasteful,” says Lori Leib, the creative director at Bodyography Professional Cosmetics, a company that recently overhauled its products to use half as much plastic and incorporate more recyclable cardboard.

“They do not use good quality materials therefore they are able to make the cost of goods next to nothing,” she says. “Sustainable packaging goes through a process that can make the packaging more costly, however the plants and labs that manufacture these goods use environmentally friendly water and electricity systems as well as recycle all goods. One lab we use to manufacture our skincare went totally green a few years ago, slightly raising our cost of goods, but as a conscious brand we added this to our budget.”

Hannah Choi/Allure

Why now?

With all these factors, getting the entire beauty industry to take on the sustainable challenge seems a nearly impossible task. While brands like Tata Harper, Aveda, Lush, and Juice Beauty have been committed to sustainability for years, in 2017 even more big name brands are stepping up to the plate. Dior recently launched a line of skincare called Hydra Life, and its packaging is “designed to remove any unnecessary elements (such as the leaflet, corrugated card and cellophane), with a reduced glass weight and inks predominantly of natural origin.” Meanwhile Garnier, whose packaging is now made from 50 percent post-recycled materials, has teamed up with recycling company TerraCycle, DoSomething.org, and Remi Cruz to launch a campaign to increase awareness about beauty product recycling (see video below).

Why now? There are a number of reasons, but a big reason is that in 2017, consumers care more than ever about the effect the consumption is having on the planet.

“Over the years we have become aware that overpopulation and industrialization have created harmful changes on all these elements we depend on,” says Murphy. “We, as industrialized cultures have just recently become aware of this imbalance and the negative effects it has on the environment based on the dramatic changes we see in our world’s climate and in nature.”

Bodyography’s Lori Leib adds, “Just like we live our lives more clean, clothing, products and all goods follow suit.”

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“Why spend money to decrease your use of gas or electricity while simultaneously purchasing products that are wasteful?” she says. “Consumers are more aware of what goes into their products these days both ingredient wise and packaging, claiming that your brand uses eco-friendly packaging is both ethical and a talking sales point.”